Cancer Patient, Furloughed From Prison, 'Prays A Lot'

July 25, 1985|by DEBBIE GARLICKI, The Morning Call

Betty Jean Harris, surrounded by her mother, boyfriend, daughter and one of her 11 grandchildren, sat quietly in the living room of her mother's Allentown home yesterday where she has been since a Lehigh County judge granted her a furlough from prison in May.

Harris, who was furloughed because doctors diagnosed she has terminal cancer, said she's hoping she won't have to go back to prison.

Being with her family, she said, is "better than being with the crowd up there at the jail."

At least for the time being, she won't have to go back. Judge Maxwell E. Davison yesterday signed an order extending her furlough another 30 days.

Davison ordered that a hearing be held in five days with Harris, Assistant Public Defender Aaron Matte, hospital representatives and Maureen McManus of Lehigh Valley Pretrial Services to arrange a schedule of appointments for Harris.

When she was furloughed, Harris, 47, had served 16 months of a two-to four-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter in the death of her stepfather, Thomas Webb Jr. She is not eligible for parole until January 1986.

She said yesterday that she has been receiving chemotherapy treatments but doesn't know who's paying for that or her medication.

The unemployed mother of seven children, ranging in ages from 19 to 33, said she hasn't worked since the '60s when she was a migrant worker in Kempton.

While she was in the county prison, she was covered under the county's contract with Prison Health Services Inc. of Delaware, which provides health services for inmates.

The original furlough order contained the condition that she be responsible for medical bills, but that was changed in June when the court was told that she did not qualify for Medicaid because she still is considered an inmate even though on furlough.

Davison's order, issued in June, before Harris was admitted to Allentown Hospital for a radiation implant, said the county's insurance plan would pay for that stay and her medication.

Matte said yesterday that he has contacted the state Welfare Department but has not yet been told whether an exception can be made in Harris' case.

Bills for her June hospital stay and prescriptions were sent to the courthouse but reportedly haven't been paid.

Her mother and daughter, Sherri Young, 22, played cards on snack trays in the house at 266 E. Chew St.

"I was kind of scared. When I came home I'd tell my mom about what we did in jail and she'd say, 'You're not in jail. You're in my house now,' " said Harris, who didn't know she had cancer until being examined in prison.

She said one of her daughters bought her a new dress and held a small party for her when she came home.

"My grandchildren were saying, 'Grandma, do you have to go back? Do you have to go back?' " she said. "I told them that I'm out for a while."

Harris stopped talking briefly when several children came into the house asking if they could get ice cream when an ice cream truck stopped in the neighborhood.

Volunteers from the Lehigh County Cancer Society have been taking her to the hospital, she said, and Meals on Wheels brought her several bags of groceries when she was furloughed.

"I try to spend as much time as I can with her," her daughter, Sherri, said.

Although she was out of prison at the time, Harris missed her daughter's wedding because she was sick.

A Baptist church sends a bus to her neighborhood on weekends to take her and other members of the congregation to church.

"Some days I don't feel so good," she said. "I try to play with the kids, then I get tired. My family is doing the best they can to help me, but they are poor themselves."